Annual Report 2013
Pillar 1/Output 4:
Strengthening Institutional Capacity to
Support Sustainable Livelihoods
ANNUAL REPORT TO
OUTPUT BOARD
JANUARY 2014
UNDP Output Board Meeting
Pillar 1/Output 4: Strengthening Institutional Capacity
to Support Sustainable Livelihoods
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
1. OVERVIEW
EXPECTED OUTPUT
1. Increased institutional capacity to promote inclusive rural financial
services.
2. Enhanced institutional capacity to create employment opportunities
particularly for women and youth
3. Enhanced institutional capacity to foster entrepreneurship (on farm and
off-farm)
EXPECTED RESULTS
1. National diagnostic of inclusive financial services completed and
submitted (MAP).
2. At least 2 new leading micro-finance service providers from Asia Region
have been introduced (MicroLead) leading to foundations for a financial
inclusion road map.
3. Financial diaries research programme initiated.
4. Micro-finance operations and ownership transferred to the selected
financial intermediary.
5. Mapping of public and private vocational training institutions completed.
6. Capacity assessment and strengthening of one vocational training
institution.
LOCATIONS
MAP: nationwide; MicroLead & microfinance: selected regions; TVET:
Mandalay Region
2013 BUDGET
USD 11,328,656
2. PROGRESS AND RESULTS TO DATE
I.
National diagnostic of inclusive financial services “Making Access to Finance Possible” (MAP)
Preparatory Stages
i) Established Steering Committee (designed ToR, identified members, consulted with
government and stakeholders);
ii) In-country visit in Myanmar of MAP team for consultation and preparation (explanation of and
consultation sessions on MAP with government and stakeholders, catalog information sources
for diagnostics, consult on questionnaire with government and stakeholders, meet research
house).
Technical Implementation MAP
i) Implementation Finscope (fieldwork, quality control, data capture, data entry and weighing,
field and technical reporting, data set creation, analyses and report writing);
ii) Supply side and regulatory diagnostic implementation (document reading, interview
processing, analyses, report writing – 1st draft);
iii) Data cleaning, coding and processing of data, website design, preview and processing of
weighted data set, arrange hosting configuration, present first results for feedback and
improvement.
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UNDP Output Board Meeting
Pillar 1/Output 4: Strengthening Institutional Capacity
to Support Sustainable Livelihoods
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Stakeholder engagement
i) Supply and demand side survey field work completed;
ii) Co-ordination of analyses and preparation of stakeholder meeting by MAP team;
iii) Three steering committee meetings held;
iv) Finalized first draft of diagnostic report translated and sent to Steering Committee for
feedback.
II.
MicroLead programme: Expand supply of inclusive financial services through leading
regional practitioners of microfinance



Government and steering committee approval
Programme staff in place.
Select grantees:
- Request for Expression of Interest (ROI) issued.
- Request for Proposal (RFP) issued to short listed organizations.
- Applications reviewed, on-site due diligence conducted and applications ranked for
Investment Committee approval.
- Grants approved for two leading regional microfinance providers who have started
implementing:
 BASIX based in India
 ACCU based in Thailand

Financial Diaries
- RFP issued for research firm.
- Applications reviewed and research firm selected.
III.
Transition of UNDP’s current retail microfinance portfolio in support of a competitive and
effective microfinance sector

The MoU between the Foreign Economic Relations Department, Ministry of National Planning
and Economic Development and UNDP was extended until end of 2013, to allow the transition
arrangements to be developed and implemented.

A national microfinance workshop was held in May to provide the necessary context for the
transition and to raise awareness of related issues by sharing experiences from regional MFIs.

Three rounds of donor consultations and three rounds of consultations with Ministry of Cooperatives to discuss transition options were held.

An international legal consultant was contracted to review all project documents, provide a
legal assessment report to UNDP and prepare a draft transfer agreement.

Transition proposal was submitted to Ministry of Co-operatives in October and upon
acceptance, the proposed project asset transfer MoU to be signed between the Ministry and
UNDP was submitted in early December.

Retail microfinance is ongoing since 1997 and currently 3 INGOs, are providing microfinance
services under UNDP contractual agreements in 4 regions: Shan, Dry, Delta, and Chin.

Microfinance services have been provided in totally 30 townships to over 380,000 active
borrowers in over 6,300 villages as of November 2013. The total outstanding amount is over
USD 76 million. Totally almost 600,000 clients have been reached during the course of the
project. Active savers total 420,000 with the total saved over USD 16 million. Beneficiary
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UNDP Output Board Meeting
Pillar 1/Output 4: Strengthening Institutional Capacity
to Support Sustainable Livelihoods
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
welfare services are delivered together with financial services to strengthen clients’ safety net
in times of emergency.
IV.
Enhanced institutional capacity to create employment opportunities
V.
Enhanced institutional capacity to foster entrepreneurship



Participation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) technical working
group under Comprehensive Education Sector Review (CESR).
Based on discussion with Small Scale Industry Department (SSID), Ministry of Co-operatives in
September 2013, UNDP agreed to provide support in the following areas:
- to conduct mapping of vocational institutions in Mandalay Region;
- to conduct institutional assessment of Saung Darr Vocational Institution; and
- to provide vocational trainings in UNDP targeted 7 States via SSID’s technical team.
Through a recruitment process in December a consultant was identified to carry out the
institutional assessment of Saung Darr Vocational Institution.
3. CHALLENGES AND LEARNING
MAP

Systematic and regular communication, such as bi-weekly group call, is necessary to
coordinate the various stakeholders for the MAP project.

Necessary to take into account potential obstacles – various issues hampered gathering of
survey information (monsoon season; insurgent issues; religious tensions).
 Getting detailed supply-side information is challenging.
MicroLead

The time required to get staff in place and approve implementers was underestimated.

Finalizing performance-based agreements time consuming due to negotiation process on legal
details.
Microfinance transition

The key challenge of the transition was to come to an agreement with all stakeholders and
actors, namely the project donors, the government counterpart, SSID, UNDP HQ and the main
implementing partner Pact, on the option to be pursued and subsequently to complete all the
relevant documentation, procedures and approvals within the specified timeframe, i.e. by the
end of the year. In the event, the deadline could not be met due to an extended consultation
process with all parties, involving mainly clarification and agreement on legal details of the
transfer of project assets.
4. LOOKING AHEAD
MAP

Fourth Steering committee will be held in January to review the diagnostic findings.

Subsequently broader stakeholder feedback will be obtained.

Present results from the MAP survey at a major conference in March and begin the
development of a road map for financial inclusion to be presented to the government.
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UNDP Output Board Meeting
Pillar 1/Output 4: Strengthening Institutional Capacity
to Support Sustainable Livelihoods
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
MicroLead

Support and oversee BASIX and ACCU set-up of operations.

Finalize Performance Based Agreement for one additional grantee (ASA based in Bangladesh).
 Secure research firm and begin survey process for financial diaries.
Microfinance transition

The government will carry out a review and approval process for the MoU.

Subsequently, a project conclusion workshop is planned in late January, to be attended by all
project stakeholders, at which the MoU and the transfer agreement will be signed and a brief
review of the project conducted.
TVET

Institutional assessment of Saung Darr Vocational Institution will be carried out in first quarter
of 2014.

Based on this a capacity building action plan will be developed to build capacities in
employable skill development of selected institutions at township level

Consultants will be recruited to carry out both mapping of employable skill development
institutions and programmes, and demand side survey in Mandalay Region.
5. FINANCIAL PROGRESS (AS AT DECEMBER 2013)
Project
MAP
Microlead
Microfinance Transition
Microfinance Retailing
Institutional Capacity Enhancement
Total
Ref: Jan 10 PBB
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2013 Budget
Expenditure
306,000
113,303
1,568,038
1,197,498
180,066
127,598
9,213,972
7,917,828
60,580
39,117
11,328,656
9,395,344